On December 30, 2019 Syd Mead passed away at his home in Pasadena, CA at 86 years of age. He was an industrial designer and visual futurist famous for his contributions to films such as Alien, Tron, and Blade Runner. Relevant to this blog, however, is his involvement in Turn A Gundam. He was its […]
Jan 1, 2020 • Subscribe
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Iconic Designer & Concept Artist Syd Mead Passes Away
By lukeford.net – http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos4/071209/41.htm, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link On December 30, news outlets reported that influential industrial designer and neofuturistic concept artist Syd Mead passed away. He was…
Closing Comments by Syd Mead for “Mead Gundam”
Mead Gundam is a 321-page book featuring design drawings, concept sketches, and notes & annotations by the late Syd Mead pertaining to his work on Turn A Gundam. Below…
An Overview of Turn A Gundam’s Animation Directors
An Animation Director (作画監督, sakuga kantoku) or AD, colloquially known as sakkan (作監) in Japanese, is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the animation of an…
Newtype Magazine (06/1999) – Interview with Syd Mead
The following is a translation from the June 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. This interview is conducted by Rikao…
Garmillas mecha designer interview
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine Vol. 17: Yasushi Ishizu, mecha designer for the Garmillas side of the remakes, discusses his craft from the very beginning…
Mecha designer interview, October 2022
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium fan club magazine Vol. 15, October 2022: Junichiro Tamamori has been designing UNCF mecha from the beginning of the remake era, up to…
Newtype Magazine (05/1999) – Q&A with Akira Yasuda, Kunio Okawara, and Syd Mead
The following is a translation from the May 1999 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. Illustration by Masahiro Yamane.
Newtype Magazine (04/2000) – Examining Turn A Gundam’s Main Scriptwriters
The following is a translation from the April 2000 issue of Newtype Magazine. It has been slightly edited for clarity and readability. THE MIRACLE OF WORDS Naturally, the appeal…
Remembrance in Anime
For the good part of the past year, I have struggled to write my impressions on the second half of the fourth season of DanMachi. In recent…
Yamato 2205 mecha designer interviews, Oct 2021
With each new remake project, fans look forward to how the groundbreaking design work of the originals gets refreshed for modern eyes. Yamato 2205 takes that another step…
Yamato 3199 mecha designer interview, April 2023
Special Talk Exploring the hints of 3199 Yamato Junichiro Tamamori (Mechanical designer) X Shosuke Uechi (CG director) The fascination of the mechanic expression of Space Battleship Yamato, which…
Garden of Remembrance
Yamada Naoki is a modern anime auteur. She started at Kyoto Animation, where she became one of the youngest directors in its history, helmin...
Liz and the Blue Bird, Tamako -love story-, Tamako Market, The Colors Within, A Silent Voice
Mead Gundam
One year ago Syd Mead passed away. He left behind a legacy that shall continue to be remembered. A visual futurist and industrial designer, he contributed much to…
Towards a Historiography of Gundam’s One Year War
Gundam could be considered reader-hostile considering the lengths it makes fans go to in order to reach its stories.
Towards a Historiography of Gundam’s One Year War
Gundam could be considered reader-hostile considering the lengths it makes fans go to in order to reach its stories.
A Glimpse of Garden of Remembrance with Naoko Yamada
A summary of Naoko Yamada and Eunyoung Choi’s presentation of Garden of Remembrance at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The Heike Story, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird, Lu Over the Wall
A Beam Rifle in Precure?! Z Gundam’s Iconic Sound Effect
Mobile Suit Z Gundam is a classic anime series, a successful sequel and a template for other 80s robot anime. One aspect of it that really sticks in…
Behind Gundam’s Creation
During the production of the first Gundam, many of the staff believed it was a failure—that it would become another one of the many anime lost to time.…
The Dragons of My Childhood: In Remembrance of Ruth Stiles Gannett
Ruth Stiles Gannett, author of the My Father’s Dragon trilogy, passed away on June 11 at the age of 100. I can’t overstate how important she was to…
Mecha March – What’s in a Design?
It's Mecha March and in order for this momentous occasion, Scott and I are taking a good long look at some great Mecha designs.
Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – OP1 “Turn A Turn”
Welcome to yet another new series of blog posts! This is one I’ve had in mind for a while, and I’m rewatching the show (for, if I recall,…
The futility of a mecha warmachine.
Will the anime mecha design ever work? It turns out that mechas are just like my hopes and dreams. They will never come true.
INTERVIEW: Garden of Remembrance Director Naoko Yamada
"The reason why I create anime is because I have a huge respect for human beings in general; what everyone thinks, what people are feeling, what they're going…
Urusei Yatsura – 25 – Remembrance of Moms Lost
When Ryuunosuke spots Ten sleeping in a tree and delivers him safely home to Lum, she’s invited to dinner with Moroboshis. Ataru’s mom, who may be mistaking her…
AnoHana Episode Six: Remembrance…
The gang begins to make major realizations and the path to letting Menma rest finally begins to reveal itself.
Syd Mead’s First Mobile Suits
Tom dives further into the publication history of Syd Mead’s Gundam movie concept art and examines rarely seen original sketches.
The History and Production of Turn A Gundam: Part IV – The Era of Turn A Gundam
Continuing my series of articles detailing the history and production of Turn A Gundam! My goal is to provide an accessible source of context and knowledge for reference…
New Project Announcement: “Turn A no iyashi”—the healing power of Turn A Gundam
A while back I acquired a holy gem—”Turn A no iyashi”, which literally translates to “Cure of Turn A”, but I think a more appropriately localized title would…
The Roles of “Characters” in Mecha Anime
Sometimes, you’ll see a wild claim about mecha anime, like “Gurren-Lagann was the first giant robot series to be about characters instead of the robots,” and it inevitably…
Dual Builds Complete! HGCC Turn “A” Gundam ✕ HGBF Turn “A” Gundam Shin
Managed to finish this double build roughly a month after opening the bags of runners. The build itself was okay and there weren’t really that many hiccups along…
Turn A Gundam Character Heights
Gundam character heights have been a hot topic lately due to The Witch from Mercury’s Suletta being unusually tall for a protagonist. She’s 170cm, which places her as…
More light on Turn A
I have more things I want to do here, but for now work has me very busy. In the meantime, though, let me point out that my friend…
Dual Builds Are Back! HGCC Turn “A” Gundam ✕ HGBF Turn “A” Gundam Shin
Got a bit slow and took me five days to finish the Entry Grade RX-78-2 Gundam. Yep, five days, for an Entry Grade. But then again, I was…
HARM - A Mecha Short Story
HARM This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people...
Is this a [mecha upgrade]?
The Brave series that found new life as an Internet meme is the focus of today’s update. Here’s what’s new: Mecha profiles for Brave of the Sun Fighbird
Is RahXephon a mecha show?
When I was writing about Evangelion, I said the angels don’t matter. Perhaps it could be better stated that the angels are only important to the story when…
Unlucky Clover: The Story of Gundam’s Ill-Fated Toy Sponsorship
Like all good giant robot shows, Mobile Suit Gundam had a proper toy sponsor. Unfortunately, the brightly colored metallic toys were utterly at odds with the show’s more…
Unlucky Clover: The Story of Gundam’s Ill-Fated Toy Sponsorship
Like all good giant robot shows, Mobile Suit Gundam had a proper toy sponsor. Unfortunately, the brightly colored metallic toys were utterly at odds with the show’s more…
Turn A Gundam: Wind of the Moon ~Loran’s Day~
Tsuki no Kaze (Wind of the Moon) ~Loran’s Day~ is a manga one-shot by Akiman published in the 03/2004 issue of Gundam Ace. It led into the proper…
Tonikaku Cawaii Chapter 209 (Remembrance #Tonikawa)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Tonikaku Cawaii Chapter 209. Tsukasa recalls her mysterious friend of the past (the emperor). Nasa spoils Tsukasa.
Ordinal Scale - From Requiem and Remembrance
Getting down the the wire with the SAO series, this time covering the movie Ordinal Scale, which reflects back on the start of SAO as the series continues…
I’m Hosting a Turn A Gundam Giveaway!
Hi folks! If you follow me on Twitter then you’re probably already aware, but I’ve teamed up with Nozomi Entertainment to host a Turn A Gundam giveaway. Nozomi…
Active Raid: 2nd A Good Season of Mecha cops.
Best random use of out of nowhere swearing that I’ve seen in a long time. Where are you going to see a character nonchalantly call someone a “scumwad…
Remembrance of Mortality Makes You Appreciate the Life You Have.
During the first episode of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, a zombie apocalypse strikes Tokyo, and protagonist Akira Tendou’s sudden…
8 Mecha Isekai Anime About Robots in a Fantasy World
Mecha isekai anime is fairly rare, but not too uncommon. You definitely have to look a lot harder for it, though. If you enjoy both mecha and isekai,…
Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, Aura Battler Dunbine, Escaflowne, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – Episode #16 “All About Turn A”
Turn A Gundam’s sixteenth episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on July 23, 1999. Turn A Gundam’s sixteenth episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on July 16, 1999.
Turn A Gundam Custom Made Figurines
In the past year I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with Etsy artist ClayBum on custom-made Turn A Gundam figurines. So, I wanted to make a little post…
Torikaebaya Monogatari and Turn A Gundam
Turn A Gundam is a work that draws influence from many aspects of foreign and Japanese culture. At its heart, it’s an anime inspired by myths, history, fairytales,…
Beauty And Oppression: Turn A Gundam
Support me: https://www.patreon.com/spirit_chaser Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Contreras2992 My Anime List: https://myanimelist.net/profile/Spirit_Chaser Anilist: https://anilist.co/user/SpiritChaser Sources: https://tsukinomayu.com/2021/03/28/the-history-and-production-of-turn-a-gundam-part-i-victory-gundam-battling-depression/ Big thanks and credit to Feez for making the presentation on Turn a No Iyashi. It is a book Tomino…